Library News Fall 2017

Sonoma State University Library at the Jean and Charles Schulz Information Center

The Sonoma State University Library fosters a transformative and welcoming environment for learning and scholarship, and empowers its community to be fluent users and creators of information across and beyond the curriculum.

Library News is published by the Sonoma State University Library.

Dean: Karen G. Schneider
Editor: Bonnie Cormier
Contributors: Rita Premo Lynne Prime Jonathan Smith

SSU Opens Makerspace

The Makerspace officially opened on October 3 in an overflow event where Dr. Sakaki cut the ribbon, and it has been packed ever since. Instructors use its space in the morning to integrate handson innovation into classes, while weekday afternoons the Makerspace is open to SSU students, faculty, and staff on a drop-in basis. “Part of the joy of the SSU Makerspace is that it occupies what had been an underutilized storage area for older information technologies such as cassette tapes and record albums,” said Jonathan Smith, Director of Library Technology, who with Dr. Jeremy Qualls of the School of Science and Technology manages the SSU Makerspace. Equipment available in the makerspace includes 3D printers; laser cutters for wood, metal, and vinyl; heat presses; a 3D scanner; hand tools; embroidery machines; a sublimation printer, and much more. 

As the headline photo shows, the SSU Makerspace is an interdisciplinary initiative, with involvement from all the schools at SSU. The SSU Makerspace is funded with a $580,000 National Science Foundation grant to the School of Science and Technology and has additional support from Chevron and from the Jean and Charles Schulz Foundation. We are committed to keeping the Makerspace affordable, so we provide makerspace materials such as fabric and printer filament at no cost to Sonoma State University students. You can support student use of the SSUMakerspace by making a donation in the envelope in this newsletter

From the Dean

It has been an interesting autumn! I am proud to say that our Library was one of the frst Sonoma State University services to resume after the fres. We opened our doors to students, faculty, staf, and community members on October 17, when students were returning after the campus closure. For the next two weeks the Library housed NomaCares, a one-stop resource center for counseling, financial support, and other post-disaster services. Our outreach program to local high schools became particularly important this fall when Cardinal Newman High School was seriously damaged in the fires, closing most of their facility, including their library.

We have been providing library instruction to their students and encouraging them to study in our Library. Our actions reflect our passion for student learning and how deeply we care about those we serve. Using income from the Jean and Charles Schulz endowment, we bought dozens of armchairs with tablet arms and cupholders to provide more single seating, the most sought-after seating during midterms and finals. Last year we had almost 10,000 checkouts of our lending laptops, and we increasingly had to turn away students during peak times, so this fall we expanded our laptop checkout program from 20 to 65 laptops. The Library is open 24/7 for two weeks during finals, and we offer games and treats to our students as they pack our halls. This year had many strong positives, but like many of you, I’m ready for 2018. Onward!

SSU Loves Lucy!

Peanuts’ Lucy to greet Schulz Center Visitors

Lucy, the Peanuts character, is coming to the University Library! Artist Mary Vaughan of Santa Rosa updated a statue of Lucy that was in need of rehoming. Lucy now sports a Sonoma State University teeshirt, and by mid-December she will be standing on a platform of cloud and sky in front of the Jean and Charles Schulz Information Center, welcoming our communities to the Library. “I strive to evoke things beyond the obvious with visual metaphor,” Ms. Vaughan explained about her approach to painting the statue of Lucy. She holds an MA from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from the Maine College of Art in Portland, and has worked as a full-time painter in Santa Rosa, California since 2001. The 5-foot-tall Lucy statue, made of fiberglass, is one of 200 statues of Peanuts characters commissioned by the City of Santa Rosa between 2005 and 2010 as a tribute to Charles Schulz. The program raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for art scholarships, and added whimsy throughout the city by way of these human-sized artistic interpretations of Charlie Brown, Woodstock, Snoopy, and Lucy. Lucy is the third Peanuts character statue to join the Sonoma State University Library. A Woodstock statue, “Learning to Fly,” brightens up the first floor, while another Woodstock, “Professor of Eggsonomics,” points the way to the Library Administration suite on the third floor. We’ll announce on Twitter (@ssulib) when Lucy joins us on the front lawn of the Library. Then come have your picture taken with Lucy.

In the Gallery

I am Because

The popular Library Gallery exhibit I Am Because… has been extended through Friday, December 15. I Am Because… features artifacts from the professional life journey of Sonoma State University President Dr. Judy Sakaki. “This is the first time in recent memory that an exhibit has been so popular that visitors filled an entire guestbook with signatures and comments,” said Dean Schneider. “We extended this exhibit so students using the Library during finals can take inspiration from Dr. Sakaki’s life story.” I Am Because… follows Dr. Sakaki’s ascent from a child of parents who were imprisoned in internment camps for Japanese-Americans in World War II. The exhibit follows Dr. Sakaki through her decision to pursue a university degree and on to her becoming the first woman of Japanese heritage to become president of a four-year university in the United States. Artifacts featured in I Am Because… include photos of Dr. Sakaki’s academic journey, dolls and other toys from Dr. Sakaki’s childhood, a phonograph player crafted by her father at the Tule Lake internment camp, and other mementoes.

Harvester

HARVESTER opens Tuesday, January 16 and is on display through Friday, March 16. HARVESTER is a series of portraits of grape harvest workers by local photographer Erik Castro, who in 2015 began asking workers at grape harvest picks to sit for brief portrait sessions at the end of their workday. The resulting exhibit showcases the people behind the label “immigrant laborer” and continues our Library’s focus on the California immigration experience started this fall with the county-wide reading, Becoming Dr. Q, discussed elsewhere in this newsletter. An exhibit reception for HARVESTER will be held in early 2018, date to be determined.

Revolutionizing the World

the World Our second exhibit this spring, open from Wednesday April 4 through Monday April 30, is Revolutionizing the World, an exhibit marking the centenary of the Russian Revolution with a variety of intriguing art and cultural artifacts from the Getty Research Institute, the Wende Museum of the Cold War, and the Center for the Study of Political Graphics. This exhibit was brought to Sonoma State University by Dr. Stephen Bittner of the School of Social Sciences and is curated by Dr. Cristina Cuevas-Wolf, Resident Historian at The Wende Museum of the Cold War. 

Special Collections

Lynn Woolsey Congressional Papers

The Library’s Special Collections are exceptionally strong in local environmental issues. Our collections in this area just became stronger with the completion of the processing for Lynn Woolsey’s papers. We are already seeing students using these papers across the Sonoma State University curriculum, including environmental history, where these papers are a cherished primary source. Archivist Lynn Downey had been working part-time on the Woolsey papers for the past year. She comes to us with decades of archival experience. “The Lynn Woolsey Congressional Papers chronicle the Honorable Lynn Woolsey’s 20 years in Congress, from 1993 to 2013,” Ms. Downey explained. “Representative Woolsey was an advocate for numerous North Bay environmental issues, from the Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary north of the Farallon Islands to open space protection and Point Reyes farmland, and she led early discussions of climate change.” To celebrate the completion of the processing of the Lynn Woolsey collection, in March we are holding a panel discussion on women in politics, moderated by Gaye LeBaron and featuring Lynn Woolsey and other local politicians. Stay tuned! 

Sonoma County Reads

Becoming Dr. Q: My Journey from Migrant Farm Worker to Brain Surgeon is Alfredo QuinonesHinojosa’s inspiring autobiography. It is also this year’s county-wide common reading, a program created through a collaboration among our Library, the Sonoma County Public Library, and Santa Rosa Junior College. With immigration a constant news item, it is not surprising that our Library’s dinner talk in November about Becoming Dr. Q was a huge success, with about two dozen people in attendance from SSU and around the county to enjoy pasta and share their thoughts about the book. An exhibit of books and other materials relevant to Dr. Q has been very popular, and the HARVESTER exhibit discussed in this newsletter continues the themes explored in this year’s countywide reading. 

In Brief

Revitalization Plan

Finally, the Library, working closely with campus architects and planners, is leading a revitalization plan to help our lovely building meet the needs of students and educators in the 21st century. By mid-2018 we will have a “wish book” of fundable library revitalization projects.

Listening to our Community

A Library activity that emerged after the fires is a weekly prompt on a student whiteboard in the  second floor lobby. We started with the obvious question—“How are you?”—and moved on to other questions such as students’ feelings, Halloween candy preferences, and library study habits. Students’ whiteboard comments are whimsical, thoughtful, sad, and inspiring, but always from the heart. As one student wrote, “I was glad to have a place to come back to.”

The Librarian is In

We have steadily increased hours for walk-up research help, a service that puts a friendly face to the skills librarians provide to help students succeed. Walk-up research help is a natural extension of our library instruction, which helps thousands of students every year learn how to find and evaluate information sources.

Pan y Café

Pan y Café continues to be a success. This event series invites all campus community members to gather for informal conversation and goodies in a casual and welcoming environment with an emphasis on issues of interest to the Latino/a/x communities. We look forward to more great conversation with our pan, café, and chocolat.

Pan y Café will be held 10:30 am – 12 noon on Wednesdays on February 14, March 14 and April 18.

New Faces

The Library has a bumper crop of wonderful new employees joining us! Among the tenure track librarians: Kaitlin Springmier is our new head of library instruction; Hilary Smith, formerly a temporary librarian, is now the Research and User Experience Librarian; Mary Wegmann is our new Collections Librarian; and Turner Masland is our Access Services Manager.

Open Access

In May, the Library co-hosted with the Faculty Center and the Summer Institute for Open Educational Resources, a day-long workshop that hosted approximately 25 attendees. Institute sessions, including two led by librarians, addressed current and future CSU-wide work to make instructional materials more affordable for students.